Join us for the first concert of the WPL SPRING JAZZ CONCERT SERIES 2024, featuring the very talented Ali Ryerson Quartet!

Registration is required as seating is limited for this in-person FREE concert.

[Photo credit for Ali Ryerson: Dennis Guillaume]

Meet the band: Ali Ryerson (flute); Larry Ham (keyboard); Lou Pappas (bass) and Karl Latham (drums)

Ali Ryerson (flute): With a career spanning five decades, jazz flutist Ali Ryerson has consistently ranked among the top flutists in the Downbeat Jazz Poll for well over a decade. She has become an international touring/recording artist, with performances ranging from Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, to the Blue Note (NYC and Japan), plus festival appearances worldwide. Ali has recorded and/or performed with jazz greats such as Red Rodney, Roy Haynes, Kenny Barron, Frank Wess, Hubert Laws, Stephane Grappelli, Harold Danko, Art Farmer, Mike Mainieri, Joe Beck, The Levin Brothers, and Gene Bertoncini, and a guest appearance with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at  Lincoln Center Orchestra. She has also performed with classical artists Julius Baker and Luciano Pavarotti (when she was principal flutist with the Monterey Bay Orchestra). Ali was musical director of the Hudson River Regional Jazz  Festival (2001-’04), Jazz Chair for the National Flute Association, and founder of the NFA Jazz Flute Big Band. As an educator and author, Ryerson published the widely acclaimed Jazz Flute Practice Method, and conducts master classes worldwide.

Larry Ham (keyboards): Pianist, composer, and arranger Larry Ham is a veteran New York sideman, performing,    touring, and recording with many great jazz artists. He began his professional career in the Lionel Hampton Orchestra in the late ’80’s. He was pianist in the Illinois Jacquet Big Band 1990-95 and has worked extensively with countless other jazz legends, including the late Junior Cook and Dakota Staton. His New York appearances include Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Blue Note, Carnegie Hall, Iridium, The Village Vanguard, Birdland, Small’s, Mezzrow, and Harlem’s historic Lenox Lounge. More recently he has toured extensively in the US, and performed in Japan, Canada, Germany, Poland, England, Switzerland, Austria, France and The Czech Republic. Recent festival appearances include The Montreal Jazz Festival, The Rochester Jazz Festival, The Cape Cod Jazz Festival, the New Jersey JazzFest, and a performance for The West Texas Jazz Society. Larry earned a BA in Musical Studies from the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam, and an MA in Jazz Performance from the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College in New York City. He currently teaches at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, and at Dutchess Community College in Poughkeepsie, NY.

Lou Pappas (bass): Lou Pappas’ career encompasses both Jazz and Classical music. After beginning with orchestras in Colorado and Oklahoma, he moved to New York to accept the position as bassist with the United States Military Academy Band at West Point, from which he retired in 2006. Since then, Mr. Pappas has kept a steady pace of performance with many groups in the New York area, such as the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, Taconic Opera Company, and the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra. His jazz work includes freelancing with a number of groups from Albany      to Woodstock, New York City, Connecticut and New Jersey; including performances with such jazz greats as David Liebman, Byron Stripling, Randy Brecker, Steve Turre, James Williams, Claire Fischer, Chris Flory, Dennis Mackrel,   Billy Cobham, and fellow bassist John Clayton. In addition to his playing schedule, he has been teaching private and college level bass for over 40 years, just recently retiring from Vassar College and the State University of New York at New Paltz.

Karl Latham (drums): Karl Latham’s career has spanned the globe performing, recording and producing with Grammy® Award winning artists, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame members and a multitude of internationally acclaimed musicians including: Ali Ryerson; The Bernie Worrell Orchestra; Jerry Vivino; Andy Snitzer; Mark Egan; Johnny Winter;    The Shirelles (Music Director); John Lee Quartet; The Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Stars; The Fantasy Band;  Howard Paul with Laurence Hobgood, Anat Cohen and Tom Scott; and has co-led 2016 BMW World Jazz Award nominated “Constellations” with Mark Egan and Ryan Carniaux and Don Braden/Karl Latham Big Fun(K). Karl toured Europe extensively for nearly 25 years in the groups of Wolfgang Lackerschmid and Johannes Mossinger.  Karl has subbed on the Broadway productions of “Bring It On”, “Hamilton”, “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical”, and “Ain’t Too Proud”. Karl continues to record, produce and engineer in his studio. During the pandemic, he developed the “Concerts from the Cabin” virtual jazz series, streaming live concerts of incredible local jazz artists. He continues to teach privately and as an Adjunct Professor at Drew University, the County College of Morris and Passaic County Community College. His CD “Together” with Alex Collins and Ryan Berg was released in 2021.